WP 19 | Seven Ways to Simplify Your Therapy Website To Increase Conversions with Daniel Fava
In this episode of The Wise Practice Podcast, Whitney Owens interviews Daniel Fava, a digital business consultant and founder of Private Practice Elevation. Together, they discuss seven ways to simplify therapy practice websites to increase conversions. Private Practice Elevation offers website design, SEO, and website support services to help private practice owners grow their business through online marketing. Having a website is a great way to showcase your business or personal brand. However, it is important to remember that a website is only effective if it is user-friendly, easy to navigate, and visually appealing. In this article, we will discuss seven key points that can help you improve your website design and make it more attractive to potential clients.
Wrangle Your Website Navigation Menu:
The navigation menu is the roadmap of your website. It is crucial to ensure that it is well-organized, easy to use, and straightforward. Avoid overwhelming your visitors with too many options. Keep it simple and ensure that your menu is consistent across all pages.
Focus on One Clear Call to Action:
Every website should have a clear call to action. This can be a button, a form, or any other type of element that encourages the user to take action. The call to action should be visible and easy to find on every page. It is important to make it clear what the user should do and what they will get in return.
Have Clean and Consistent Contact Information:
Contact information is essential for any business website. It is important to ensure that your contact information is easy to find and consistent across all pages. This includes your phone number, email address, and physical address. Use a clear font and make sure that your contact information stands out from the rest of the content on the page.
Remove Unnecessary Clutter:
Too much information on a website can be overwhelming and confusing for visitors. It is important to prioritize the content that you want to display and remove anything that is unnecessary. This can include excessive text, images, or videos that do not add value to the user experience.
Have a Clear Message “Above the Fold”:
The area above the fold refers to the portion of the webpage that is visible without scrolling. It is essential to have a clear and concise message in this area. This message should communicate what your business is all about and what services or products you offer. Use attention-grabbing headlines and clear images to make your message stand out.
Use a Clear Color Palette and Limit Your Colors:
Color plays a significant role in web design. It is important to use a clear color palette and limit the number of colors that you use. This will make your website more visually appealing and easier to navigate. Use colors that complement each other and reflect the personality of your brand.
Give Potential Clients a Free Resource and Follow Up Later:
Offering a free resource, such as an e-book or a downloadable guide, is an excellent way to attract potential clients to your website. Once they have downloaded your free resource, you can follow up with them later and offer them additional products or services. This can help to build trust and establish a long-term relationship with your clients.
Conclusion:
These seven points can help you improve your website design and make it more effective in attracting potential clients. A user-friendly website that is easy to navigate and visually appealing is essential for any business. Remember to focus on the user experience and make it easy for visitors to find the information they are looking for. With these tips, you can create a website that will help you achieve your business goals and stand out from the competition.
Links and Resources
Simplified SEO Consulting Spring Break Blog Writing Workshop for Therapists
Guest’s webpage: Private Practice Elevation
Daniel Fava on Instagram: daniel.fava
People who mention Whitney's podcast when reaching out to us can get $200 off a website project, $50 off an SEO assessment, and $15 off the first 3 months of a WordPress care plan
-
7 Ways to Simplify Your Therapy Website To Increase Conversions with Daniel Fava | WP 19
===
Are you a profit practice owner looking to improve your blog writing? Mark your calendars from March 29th to April 1st because Simplified SEO Consulting is bringing you a one-of-a-kind workshop in beautiful steam Hatchy, Florida. In fact, I'm gonna be there. I'd love to see you in person. This workshop is designed to help you take your blog writing skills to the next level.
And over the three day period, you'll participate in structured hands-on writing sessions as well as bow time and a fish fry. And on the first night we'll be kicking things off with a bon fire. You'll leave the workshop with not only a list of 10 blog post ideas and inspiration for future topics, but also five fully written blogs that you can use right away.
Plus, you'll learn techniques and tools to help you write website content more efficiently in the future. I know that block writing can be overwhelming, even daunting, especially when you have so many things to focus on in your. Danica and Jessica at Simplified SEO are experts in what they do and have found ways to make it easier to keep up and have more fun.
So don't miss out on this unique opportunity to improve your blog writing skills. To check out and learn more, head to simplified seo consulting.com.
[00:01:45] Whitney Owens: Well today on The Wise Practice Podcast, I'm excited about interviewing Daniel Fava. We're gonna be talking about seven ways to simplify your therapy practice to increase your conversions. This is definitely a topic that all of us need to hear. But tell you a little bit about Daniel. He's a digital business consultant and founder of Private Practice Elevation.
[00:02:27] Whitney Owens: A website designed an SEO agency focused on helping busy practice owners attract the clients they love so they can scale their business and create the life they desire. After building a website for his wife's private practice and seeing the impact it had on her business, he became passionate about helping others achieve the same Private practice Elevation offers website design service.
[00:02:48] Whitney Owens: Seo, which is search engine optimization and website support to help private practice owners grow their business through online marketing. Daniel, thanks for taking the time to hang out with me today.
[00:02:59] Daniel Fava: Yeah, absolutely. Excited to, excited to chat with you and explore, uh, some of this stuff. It's always fun to just kind of geek out and talk about the website stuff for me at least.
[00:03:08] Daniel Fava: actually,
[00:03:08] Whitney Owens: I find it really fun as well, so I enjoy it too, and I always really enjoy talking about market.
[00:03:14] Daniel Fava: Yeah, it's a fun topic, so, yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
[00:03:17] Whitney Owens: So why don't you talk a little bit about your, um, business and kind of how it rolls so people can know a little bit more about it.
[00:03:25] Daniel Fava: Yeah, absolutely. So like you said, uh, the name of the business is Private Practice Elevation.
[00:03:28] Daniel Fava: And you know, basically what we do is we try to help our clients go from whatever level you're at now to the next level you're really trying to achieve. And so that's why it's called Private Practice Elevation. Uh, we work with people who are just starting out in private practice and they need to establish themself with an online presence or people who have been in private practice for 10 years plus.
[00:03:50] Daniel Fava: Or they might have a large group practice, but still they're looking to get to that. Level, uh, of professionalism with their online presence or get found by more ideal clients. So search engine optimization, um, all that stuff. So it's really, um, you know, our basic services come down to website design and development, uh, and search engine optimization, as well as WordPress care plans.
[00:04:10] Whitney Owens: Great. Great. And I just wanna emphasize, and we've, we've talked about this before, your wife and I went to graduate school together, um, and she kinda has that Christian counseling background and Yeah, just as I was reading your bio, I was rethinking about like just that importance of having a really good website.
[00:04:26] Whitney Owens: Is so vital to help Christian clients find the right therapists. And there's, I mean, it's, it's important for anyone to find the right therapist, but when we think about our faith-based work, that's so important that if somebody wants a Christian council, that they can find them. Yeah. And that website is totally the foundation of all that.
[00:04:43] Daniel Fava: Yeah, absolutely. And that, that's really a big part of our story, both for myself and my wife, because when we created her first website, when she was first starting out, Uh, you know, it wasn't overtly Christian or anything like that, but there was just some of her personality in there and just mentioning, uh, hey, I, I practiced this faith, but I'm, I'm open to working with people of all faiths.
[00:05:02] Daniel Fava: But it still helped her, um, bring in some of those people who were looking for a Christian perspective, you know, for their counseling. So, absolutely, you know, the website is, is key for, you know, I believe. All your marketing, it's really the foundation and where you send everybody, you know, referral sources, people from Google, um, friends and family, you know, you say, Hey, I'm, I have this practice, I have this business.
[00:05:23] Daniel Fava: Here's my website.
[00:05:25] Whitney Owens: Yes, definitely. Great. Well I'm excited to jump into this topic, um, not only as I think about my private practice, but also my consulting website. Um, this, we can kinda talk about some of that kind of stuff. So seven ways to simplify your Therapy Website to increase your client conversions cuz this is the whole reason we have a website is to increase your convergence.
[00:05:45] Whitney Owens: And I think a lot of people don't think about that. , right? When they get their website going, they're not thinking about conversions, they're just thinking about getting it out there,
[00:05:54] Daniel Fava: right? Yeah, absolutely. It's like you, and, and it makes sense. Like especially when you're first starting out, you want to have your place on the internet, you wanna get started, you wanna start sending traffic your way.
[00:06:04] Daniel Fava: Um, and I think a lot of the stuff that we're gonna talk about, you know, with these seven tips is sometimes the, uh, the victim of. Mentality because you get something up and then you add something here, you add something there. You're kind of making it work as your practice grows. So, you know, I hope that these tips will kind of bring people back, uh, whether you're just starting out and you still need to build a website, or you had a website for maybe a while and you wanna take just, you know, a fresh, uh, look at these things.
[00:06:29] Daniel Fava: Um, so, and I was also thinking, you know, this morning I was just kind of reflecting on. On, uh, website design just in general. And, uh, my wife and I, my wife always says to me like, you just, you have such a knack for this stuff. And cuz sometimes, you know, in the, in the privacy of our conversations, I'm like, I don't know how to teach this stuff because it just, To be honest, it comes pretty natural to me and I've been kind of on this journey personally in my, you know, in my personal life learning about, uh, being a highly sensitive person.
[00:07:00] Daniel Fava: And so this is something that has been, you know, is just kind of, I've realized just through reading and also talking with other therapists who specialize with highly sensitive people. So what that means is, I can, I get overwhelmed by sound stimulation and even visual stimulation and, you know, stuff like that.
[00:07:16] Daniel Fava: It makes parenting really, uh, challenging for me sometimes with two very active boys. Um, you know, and so I've been kind of, I was reminded of this as I'm thinking about website design and simplicity because so many times I, I, I visit a website and it's just, I can kind of know right away what is. What doesn't feel right to me, like what is overwhelming me.
[00:07:40] Daniel Fava: And so I've been kind of reframing this as a superpower, you know, for me, because sometimes it's a struggle. Uh, I did the same thing when I learned that I was Enneagram nine. I know we can talk about Enneagram forever with you, Whitney. Um, and it was just kinda like, oh, this doesn't feel like a superpower, but, you know, so this is something that I am learning myself and, you know, and so sometimes this doesn't come natural and, and I sometimes take that for granted.
[00:08:04] Daniel Fava: So, so yeah. So let's just jump in. Is it okay if I just kind of jump. Tip number one here.
[00:08:08] Whitney Owens: Yeah. Yeah. I actually wanna make one more comment. Yeah, yeah. Because I love what you just said and, and I appreciate your vulnerability and I was just talking to a client yesterday cuz I had read an article that, well, I read an article a while ago, but the more items that you have in a room, it actually increases anxiety and depression.
[00:08:25] Whitney Owens: Yeah. Right? Yeah. And so our clients are already overwhelmed and they're coming to our website. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And so that simplicity is so important. So yeah, let's,
[00:08:34] Daniel Fava: let's keep. Yeah, and that's a, that's a good segues to tip number one here. Um, and that is, I call it wrangle, wrangle, your website navigation menu.
[00:08:42] Daniel Fava: So wrangle the things that are in that, you know, that top menu going across, um, you know, back to that highly sensitive. Person that I am when I walk into, let's say Chick-fil-A and it's really busy and there's just, you know, there's all these choices on the menu and there's kids over here, people talking over there for me, I get overwhelmed and like, you know, like, just like what you said, someone's coming to your, your website, they're overwhelmed with their life situation, and then you're giving them this menu that all these things to choose from and where do I go, what do I do?
[00:09:14] Daniel Fava: So you wanna make. As simple as possible for somebody to find the information that they need to take that next step with you. You know, sometimes people, they need to learn about your services. They need to learn about how those services work. You know, typically they're coming to you, they're looking for a specific service, so your menu can take them to that.
[00:09:33] Daniel Fava: As quickly as possible. Um, there's this sort of motto that I have when it comes to website design and it's don't make them think, like, just don't make them think about it. Make it very clear where they need to go. So a lot of the times, you know what that looks like, uh, for us when we design websites, we try to keep it to five to seven menu items, you know, so things like, About us, um, or, you know, our team, if you have a group practice services is usually a, a dropdown and you can have sub menus under here, you know, so services and then you might have, uh, uh, couples counseling and individual counseling.
[00:10:06] Daniel Fava: And then maybe under couples counseling you might break that out into, um, you know, Premarital counseling, just marriage counseling, you know, stuff like that. But I'm really talking about like, tho those top menu items should be about five to seven items. So at a glance people can see and decide where am I gonna go next?
[00:10:24] Whitney Owens: Mm-hmm. . That's great. Yeah. When I go to a restaurant and I'm overwhelmed, I just look at my husband and or the waiter or server and say, Hey, y'all pick what I'm gonna eat today. Yeah. I don't wanna make a decision. Right, right. Yeah. So, yeah. All right. What's the second.
[00:10:39] Daniel Fava: Sure. The second one is focus on one clear call to action.
[00:10:43] Daniel Fava: So you might have heard this term before. Um, Call to action or cta? Uh, typically what that looks like on a website design, it could be, uh, like an image or a, a banner that stretches across, uh, a section of the website that has text and then a button and it tells them to take a specific action. You know, and that might be schedule a consultation or, you know, schedule your.
[00:11:08] Daniel Fava: Session, that sort of thing. And sometimes, you know, we, we don't convert people because we don't ask them to take that next step. We don't give them clear directions. And a lot of the times when it comes to, you know, your website design and even, uh, how you communicate, and we'll talk about this in one of the other points, is you want to, again, make it as simple as possible and, Kind of treat them like they're fourth graders or even younger , like, to just like, you need to do this.
[00:11:33] Daniel Fava: Like this is the next step. Um, you know, because people, they get distracted, they're likely on their phone or they're, they're going about life and they're thinking about this. Issue, this challenge that they're having and they're looking for a therapist, they're looking for help. Um, and so, you know, they might not take that step right away, but you wanna make it really easy for them.
[00:11:54] Daniel Fava: If they do, you know, come back and they know exactly, okay, I made this decision. I'm gonna take the next step. They know what that next step is. So focus on one clear call to action. Um, a lot of the times most people offer like a free consultation call. You know if that is your next step that someone's gonna take on their journey to becoming, uh, your next client.
[00:12:14] Daniel Fava: Make that clear throughout the website. So you, you want that on the bottom of each page. You can also, and depending on your website template, put that at the bottom of each blog post. Uh, make it very clear. A lot of the times we'll also make it a button at the top right of your menu, you know, that says schedule a consultation.
[00:12:33] Daniel Fava: It's just, it's clear and it's also consistent. You know, there's ways you can do that with design as far as like color and the words that you use, but they know what that next step is.
[00:12:42] Whitney Owens: Mm-hmm. . It's so important. I've been amazed how many sites I go to for therapists and I can't find the phone number. Yeah.
[00:12:51] Whitney Owens: You know, and, and that's like the first thing I say to people in consulting when I see their website is, . If somebody wanted to schedule a tea, they don't know
[00:12:58] Daniel Fava: how. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. . Absolutely. And that's actually, that's another point. So that was, I had those number six, but we can go there right now, , and that is great.
[00:13:07] Daniel Fava: That is you, you gotta, you want your contact information just clear and consistent. Mm-hmm. on the website, you know, so that call to action is a little bit different because it's, it's specific, like it's, these are, this is the next step. Schedule a consultation. Sometimes people just wanna call and some people want to.
[00:13:25] Daniel Fava: Um, send you an email, you know, that happens too. So you wanna make that also available. Again, people are distracted. They might come to your website 2, 3, 4, 5 times before they actually, um, call you. So what we do when we design websites is, you know, we'll often do like a top bar. It's even above the menu.
[00:13:43] Daniel Fava: It's at the very top of the website, and it's got the email address and or phone number right there. Uh, another place we put it is in the footer of the website. Uh, and that's also a. Thing to do that helps with your, uh, your local s e o is to have the address there. The, uh, your email address and your phone number, uh, and the name of the practice too.
[00:14:02] Daniel Fava: You know, you want that consistent with what you have on your Google Business profile. So put that on your website, keep it consistent. So again, at any time people know where to click. An extra step that we take actually when we do, uh, the mobile version of the website is we put that right underneath the logo at the top of the website.
[00:14:18] Daniel Fava: So at any time people can just hit that with their thumb, the phone number right there, and they can call you. Oh, yeah. That's
[00:14:25] Whitney Owens: great. Yeah. I'm always talking to practice centers about the importance of tracking their calls. Yeah, and tracking like how people are scheduling because you need to be really getting people that call action.
[00:14:38] Whitney Owens: So like for example, you know what you were saying, give them multiple avenues. Like we have the opportunity for them to call, they can email directly, they can fill out the contact form or they can schedule online. Right? Yeah. But we, when we track all that, our best conversions are phone. Really. Okay. Yes.
[00:14:54] Whitney Owens: 100%. Yeah. Now other people have told me a lot of other things, but so we always push, call us. Call us, and we have the same button. Hit the button. Call. Call. Yeah. Because that's when we usually convert people. And then if they book online, it's, you know, 50 50 if they're gonna show up for their session. If they call, yeah, I mean almost a hundred percent they're gonna show up for their
session.
[00:15:15] Daniel Fava: Yeah, that's good. That's a very good point. You gotta, you gotta track this stuff for sure. Mm-hmm. . Yeah. Cuz you might be focusing so much on getting people to a contact form and then you come to find out that you know your ideal client actually. They prefer to call you, you know, and that's just, that's right.
[00:15:31] Daniel Fava: Certain people. And it's also too, you know, different people are, they have different preferences. You know, I'm talking about like the, the therapists and their website. Cuz I've been to websites that are, I can't, I, I have no idea where this person is located because they're focused like just on online.
[00:15:45] Daniel Fava: And you could see that it's clear. They just want everybody to just email and they want to do all their business through email, which is fine if that's your preference, but, Back to your point, if you're tracking it and maybe even run a test and you realize, oh wow, more people actually wanna call me, you know, then that's where you switch over that call to action.
[00:16:01] Daniel Fava: You focus everything on that primarily.
[00:16:04] Whitney Owens: Yeah. Yeah. All right, so I think we're at number three. Is that right?
[00:16:08] Daniel Fava: That would've been number three. We jumped ahead. So this would be number four. Okay. Now I have to use, use my brain here with my notes here. . All right. So, great. We have our fourth tip here is re remove unnecessary clutter.
[00:16:20] Daniel Fava: Um, you know, when we first. Started talking, uh, on this topic. I, I mentioned, you know, folks that maybe they have a website for a while. It's something that they've set up and maybe it was a few years ago and their practices changed. They've maybe added new services, maybe they've added groups, stuff like that.
[00:16:37] Daniel Fava: So a lot of the times what I see when I start, you know, when I start consulting with somebody, And checking out their website. There's just so much clutter going on. There's so much stuff. There's just blocks of text here, blocks of text there. And then they realized, oh, I should have more photos on the page.
[00:16:51] Daniel Fava: So they throw a photo here and a photo there, and there's no, there's no thought process behind it. Um, it happens especially on the homepage because you, you, you're like, you're trying to get people to all these different things. Um, so you just, you put everything in the kitchen, sink in there, and you know, We've touched on this already, but when you're overwhelmed and confused and you don't know what to do, then you, you often don't make a decision.
[00:17:15] Daniel Fava: You know, and so you, you could miss out on those conversions. You could miss out on getting people to the information that they need to make the next step by just, you know, fueling that overwhelm, that anxiety. Cuz they don't know what to do. They don't know where to go. They don't know where to find the service that they need.
[00:17:30] Daniel Fava: So, you know, really the, the tip to avoid this is, Come at your website with a fresh look. You know, you might even reach out to friends and family and just say, Hey, what's your, what's your first impression of this page here? How do you feel when you come to this page? Is it clear what you're supposed to do?
[00:17:48] Daniel Fava: Um, you could even give people scenarios like, okay, say you're, you're, you're looking for, uh, depression therapy. Here's my homepage. What are you thinking? What are you feeling? You know, kind of put 'em in that shoes in, in those, uh, in that situation. And, you know, you just try to learn like, okay, what can I remove?
[00:18:05] Daniel Fava: What is not important anymore? Um, how can I create just a clear path, you know, to, to taking that next step. Mm-hmm. ?
[00:18:15] Whitney Owens: Yes, a great, great.
[00:18:17] Daniel Fava: Yeah, and this was actually, um, it was funny. I was re reviewing, you know, some of my notes on this, on this speci specific tip. And so our good friend Gordon Brewer, this is actually , this is where he fell into, um, I believe it was like maybe two years ago.
[00:18:30] Daniel Fava: We Reid a redesign of his, uh, Kingsport counseling, his group practice. And it was like, textbook what we're just talking about now, you know, he had. I actually have the old screenshot in front of me right now, and this is not to, to rag on Gordon. He's got a great successful practice. He's awesome at marketing, but he even, you know, admitted to me like, this is why I wanna redesign it because like he had different.
[00:18:51] Daniel Fava: Colors of different fonts and there was just photos and just kind of thrown in and there was way too much text. It was like so overwhelming to look at, you know? So we came at that with fresh eyes and gave people, you know, just like the clear introduction to the practice and then gave them those, I like to call 'em doors, your homepages, like gives them doors to walk through.
[00:19:11] Daniel Fava: And so just organize that, remove what wasn't necessary anymore. Um, Took out the big ugly covid 19 notice that everyone was doing and kind of moved that to a, a link in the, in the hero, you know, stuff like that. So remove that clutter and simplify it. Nice. Good examples. Cool. All right, well the next tip we have is, uh, have a simple, clear message and focus above the p the fold.
[00:19:35] Daniel Fava: And this is something that you want to do. You want to do this on a page by page. Basis, you know, especially with your homepage and your service page. Um, because you only have a, a couple of seconds to let people know what it is you do and that they're in the right place. Um, and so you wanna have a clear headline on each page, uh, especially those service pages that really let your potential clients know, you know, who they serve, you know, so they're in the right place.
[00:20:05] Daniel Fava: Really, it's your, it's your quick chance to kind of convey the benefits of working with you. So you wanna put yourself in the shoes of your ideal client. And, uh, again, we wanna make things as simple as possible. Don't make them think about it. So a lot of the times, you know, what this looks like in the real world is see people tell us all the time, like, oh, no one's coming to my website.
[00:20:24] Daniel Fava: They're not doing anything on these pages. You look at their service pages and you know, they might have a service page that just says relationships or couples, you know? And so if you landed on that website and you weren't looking for couples therapy, like, oh, what about couples? Oh, okay. This is couple's therapy.
[00:20:43] Daniel Fava: Like I really need to read and I needed to like find out what this page is actually about. So this is something too that helps with seo. You know, instead of just saying relationships, you might wanna say relationships, ther relationship therapy in Atlanta, Georgia. Like, really clear, this is what the service is.
[00:21:01] Daniel Fava: Let's Google know. Let's the user know. Uh, you know, it's very clear. Another thing that you can do if you want to be a little bit more enticing and pull people in, you know, really speak to your ideal client, is do that. Um, there's typical formulas that you see all over the place that's like, I help blank to blank.
[00:21:18] Daniel Fava: So I help this target population to achieve this desired outcome. So an example I have is I help moms overcome anxiety and depression and be the moms they always wanted to be, um mm-hmm . And that can be like, you know, that could be. There your gripping headline that's a little bit more like the marketing sp you really like getting to that ideal client, but the.
[00:21:38] Daniel Fava: Sort of Maine and seo, uh, headline that you want to use is, might just be therapy for moms in Atlanta, Georgia. You know, like very clear this is what it is. Um, sometimes what we'll do from a design perspective is use that sort of gripping headline as more bold and large. Uh, and then maybe the sub-headline might be that therapy for moms in Atlanta, Georgia.
[00:21:59] Daniel Fava: So that's the first thing that someone's seeing if they're looking for their service. They know they're in the right place. They know what this page is G gonna be about. If they're not looking for the service, they know the same things and they can go find, you know, the next page. Mm-hmm. .
[00:22:12] Whitney Owens: Yeah, and I think you're also kinda speaking to the simplicity of our verbiage too, that therapist will, yeah.
[00:22:19] Whitney Owens: Use all this terminology, try to make themselves sound intelligent. But the truth is, clients, when they come to your website, they don't really care how smart you are . They care if you understand them and can help '
[00:22:34] Daniel Fava: em. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And so we're trying to relay that message as quickly as possible. And that really starts with that I mentioned above the fold, you know, so that's when someone lands on that page and they don't have to scroll.
[00:22:45] Daniel Fava: They should know within two seconds what that page is about, uh, and who it's. Yeah. And so you want to go back to that, speaking to the fourth graders? Make it as simple as possible. Don't make 'em think about it. That's
[00:22:59] Whitney Owens: right. That's right. Now I haven't been counting, have we hit all
[00:23:03] Daniel Fava: seven? Uh, no we haven't.
[00:23:05] Daniel Fava: So I guess we're up to number six. We got two more. Okay, great. The next one is a little bit more on the design side of things. Uhhuh. . So use a clear color palette and limit your colors. Um, this happens a lot again, when, when people are trying to. Emphasize certain things and, uh, likely don't have a design background.
[00:23:23] Daniel Fava: You're also trying to use the tools that Squarespace or WordPress gives you. So you just kind of bold things and throw colors here and throw colors there. Um, your color palette is actually. An extension of your brand. It's also, uh, part of connecting with your ideal client. You know, so if you're working mostly with males, you might not want, wanna have very feminine colors, you know, stuff like that.
[00:23:46] Daniel Fava: So it can really be, it's not just a color on a website. It can actually, you know, portray what your practice is about. But if you use too many color, It can also clutter things up. And again, like your eye doesn't know where to go, it doesn't know what to look at. Um, so, you know, take a step back, look at your website, think about how many colors are going on, and you might be able to refine that.
[00:24:07] Daniel Fava: Um, this is also, you know, just a, a good plug for working with a designer when you're, you know, working on your branding and your logo. , they can often, you know, create a logo and then set that palette for you, which is super helpful. But if you're doing this yourself, you know, that's totally cool. There's, uh, there's tools out there like, uh, canva.com has a, has a, I think if you just Google Canva Color Palette picker or something like that, um, it allows you to upload a photo.
[00:24:32] Daniel Fava: So there might be like the main photo I want to use on my homepage. I love the way this photo looks and feels. I love the colors of it, and it'll pull out the colors in that photo and give you a palette that you can then use. . Um, another one is Design Seeds. And you can check out that website. They have these nice, um, photos of nature and stuff like that, and you can choose a palette.
[00:24:50] Daniel Fava: And these are some resources we give our clients who have maybe not done that branding work and they're just, they're trying to figure out how they want their website to look and feel. So, um, rule of thumb that we do is one to two main colors. And, you know, those are really like your, your statement colors.
[00:25:05] Daniel Fava: The colors that make your website unique and. Focused on your brand and then maybe two to three accent colors. So these kind of compliment it, you know, and that accent color one is usually like a light and gray, to be honest. Like, just like for light backgrounds and stuff like that. Um, you just don't want these colors to, uh, to compete with one another.
[00:25:25] Daniel Fava: So that's why we say main colors and then some of those complimentary accent colors.
[00:25:30] Whitney Owens: Yeah, that's such good advice. Um, when I started the consulting business I did hire a designer cuz I needed someone to help me with my logo. Honestly, I'm still trying to figure out who I wanted to be. Um, and it was so helpful because then they gave me those colors and the, um, numbers for the colors and I could throw 'em right into Canda.
[00:25:49] Whitney Owens: And reuse 'em, throw 'em right into Squarespace. So it was super helpful. I don't really have to think about all the colors. Yeah, I just use these four. Yeah,
[00:25:57] Daniel Fava: absolutely. Yeah, it's great cuz then you could also give that to, you know, for social media graphics and stuff like that. And, and I love how Canva can actually like, save your brand colors so you can, you can just repurpose them and reuse them and it makes things super simple.
[00:26:10] Daniel Fava: And then you don't have to guess, you know, if you're creating a new. And you do want to emphasize something like, you know what colors the headers should always be in like this specific color. Um, so I'm not gonna throw some crazy red in there just to get people's attention cuz it's going to. It's gonna up everyone's anxiety.
[00:26:27] Daniel Fava: Yes, definitely. You know, it ups mine when I see that sort of, uh, that, um, Microsoft paint red, uh, font on a website and just, it hurts. It hurts my soul. , yes. All right, so we are to number seven. Our final tip here to, uh, simplify your website to, uh, increase conversions is, uh, and this is a little bit more on, on, uh, the marketing side of things.
[00:26:51] Daniel Fava: Yeah. So a little strategy here is just to give potential clients a free resource and follow up later. So, you know, a lot of what we've been talking about is. You know, removing clutter, making things easier for people to take that next step. Uh, this can be another next step. It's kind of like your, your main call to action.
[00:27:09] Daniel Fava: Like you still want to have that on your website, but not everyone's gonna take that. Call to action the first time they come. So you might want to give them sort of a, a, a minor call to action. Like there's still just one thing that's the next thing for them to do to become a client. But this is a, um, just a, something that they can do in the meantime if they're not ready.
[00:27:27] Daniel Fava: And that's give them a free resource. So, you know, we've, we've all kind of seen this, we've gotten accustomed to this, you know, giving somebody like a P D F A resource related to their challenge, like a quick win, something that they can do. Without working with you and this, and usually you do that by giving them an email.
[00:27:44] Daniel Fava: You know, you take their email address and then you send them that resource. And this gives you a chance for them to uh, get to know you, get to like, you understand your services and who you are a little better. Cause you can follow up with them via email and who knows, they might take that next step finally, and schedule with you, you know, months later that you're already.
[00:28:03] Daniel Fava: Laying the groundwork and when they're ready, you know, they're, they're usually ready. And that's, that's actually one thing I love in my business. Like I have people who've been on my email list for years, and then when they're ready to start, You know, there's no, I don't have to, not that I really do this anyway, but I don't have to like hard sell them or anything like that.
[00:28:20] Daniel Fava: It's just they know me and they trust me and they've seen the resources I've given them, and so they're just, they're ready to start. So that whole transition into them being a client, you know, is, is smooth and, and fun. . Yeah.
[00:28:32] Whitney Owens: Yeah. Well you, you hit on so many good points there at the end, and I think there is so much value in that idea of our consistency.
[00:28:39] Whitney Owens: and providing good resources does lead to business. And a lot of therapists will say to me, oh, I did that thing you told me to do and I didn't immediately get clients. I'm like, it doesn't always work like that. Yeah. Or at least for me, I'll see an influx on something all of a sudden. I'm like, well, I don't know why that's working all of a sudden, you know, and this didn't work months ago when I did it, but.
[00:28:59] Whitney Owens: It's just all how things come back around sometimes.
[00:29:01] Daniel Fava: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. You never know and it's, especially don't know if you don't try, you know, so, you know, think of something that you can, you can give your ideal client and, you know, this could be, it could be one thing, it could be many resources, you know, based on your services.
[00:29:15] Daniel Fava: Cuz like a, a couple's, somebody looking for couple's therapy is in a different place than someone who's just looking for you. Life transitions, counseling or anxiety counseling. So, you know, over time you might actually wanna create multiple resources, and that's kind of getting like into like the long-term strategy where you're, you're speaking specifically to each individual type of client that you're trying to reach.
[00:29:36] Daniel Fava: Um, but it's, you know, it's, it's really powerful and it, it helps you, it helps you convert people down the line. Yeah,
[00:29:42] Whitney Owens: definitely. Well, Daniel, you provide a lot of information today. Of course. And just so the listeners know, Daniel also has a podcast on the Private Practice Elevation podcast where he is talking about this stuff on a consistent basis and having guests and things like that.
[00:29:56] Whitney Owens: So make sure you check out his podcast so you can learn more. Great tips for marketing and website, and then you have a free ebook for listeners today, private practice elevation.com/five things. Could you tell us
[00:30:08] Daniel Fava: about. Yeah. And so, uh, that ebook is really, uh, uh, an extension of what we talked about today.
[00:30:14] Daniel Fava: So you, you might see some, uh, similar tips in there. Um, but it's, it's things that you can do within a week's time for free, uh, to your website to again, increase more conversions, get some more traffic, and, you know, really make your website working for you. Um, and a couple of things that are gonna help you actually determine if things are working for you as.
[00:30:32] Whitney Owens: Great. Great. Well, I always like getting a good deal and so today Daniel's offering listeners, uh, $200 off a website project, $50 off an SEO assessment, and $15 off the first three months of a WordPress care plan. Um, can you tell us a little bit about the WordPress? I think the other things, I kind of know what they are, but what's the WordPress
[00:30:54] Daniel Fava: care plan?
[00:30:55] Daniel Fava: Yeah. So if your website's on WordPress, um, the software needs to be maintained. It needs to be updated. It's kinda like changing the oil in a car. You know, if you just kind of let it go forever, things are gonna break down and that's, you know, Six months after someone's launched a website on WordPress and they haven't touched it, that's when we get the email.
[00:31:13] Daniel Fava: It says, my website's been hacked, or, uh, Google has flagged my website because it's got malicious code in it. You know, that stuff can happen. So our care plans are really to provide that peace of mind. Um, my team is in there weekly, making sure that software is up to date. We're running security checks on it, performance checks to make sure that things are working.
[00:31:33] Daniel Fava: If the site goes down, we get right on it to, you know, fix it or. Malicious code if that happens. Uh, unfortunately it does happen. Uh, and also included with all of our care plans is, uh, WordPress hosting. So we've got a great hosting partner, so we have really high speed hosting, uh, your security certificate, which is helpful with, uh, your, your SEO as well.
[00:31:53] Daniel Fava: Uh, and we also have different tiers that provide, uh, Hours of support work. So we've got a support desk and you can just email us, you know, if you've got a new uh, page, you need to add it to your website, just give us the content and the photos, and then we'll have that up to you, uh, within like a day or so, or if you, you know, just need to add new functionality and stuff like that.
[00:32:10] Daniel Fava: So it's, it's really designed to get the website stuff off of your plate so that you can focus on your clients building your business and all that sort of. Yep. That's
[00:32:20] Whitney Owens: the stuff I like to focus on. .
[00:32:23] Daniel Fava: Well, I like to focus on the website, so that's, it works out .
[00:32:26] Whitney Owens: That's right. I'm always saying delegate out to the experts and then go do the work you actually wanna do, instead of wasting our time doing the stuff we don't wanna do.
[00:32:33] Whitney Owens: Absolutely. Well, Daniel, this has been super helpful. If people wanna get in touch with you, um, there's private practice salvation.com, there's your podcast, you're on Instagram, Daniel dot fava. Yep. And you have great pictures, not only of you know, good website stuff, but your kids are the cutest.
[00:32:51] Daniel Fava: Thank you.
[00:32:52] Daniel Fava: That's really like my two pieces of content is mostly, uh, website, private practice, elevation stuff, and then my two boys, and then the occasional shot of bourbon . Yes.
[00:33:01] Whitney Owens: Oh, and that's important too. , but you know, this is why we work so we can enjoy our lives.
[00:33:05] Daniel Fava: Exactly.
[00:33:07] Whitney Owens: Exactly. All right, well, did, is there anything we left out you
[00:33:09] Daniel Fava: wanted to touch on?
[00:33:10] Daniel Fava: No, I don't think so. Thanks so much for having me, Whitney. It's always fun to.
[00:33:14] Whitney Owens: Oh, I always love chatting with you too. And we will be in person maybe before then. But the Wise Practice, yes. Summit is, um, October, 2023. Yeah. And so Daniel, um, is gonna be one of the sponsors for that event. So I'm excited to have him there.
[00:33:29] Whitney Owens: He'll be offering a lot of cool advice and hopefully some more deals for those that attend. Yeah. So if you're interested in learning more about that, you can go to whitney owens.com and you can see. Menu item or Summit and uh, you can get signed up for that. So Daniel, thanks again. Yeah, thanks Whitney.
Podcast Production and Show Notes by James Marland
